"Debut novelist Tea Obreht, longtime poet Adrienne Rich and Malcolm X biographer Manning Marable, who died on the eve of his book's publication, were among the National Book Award finalists announced Wednesday.

"The list of 20 nominees, five each in four categories, included several published by small presses, from TriQuarterly to Graywolf. Fiction finalist Edith Pearlman's story collection Binocular Vision was released through Lookout Books in Wilmington, N.C., while Andrew Krivak's The Sojourn came out from Bellevue Literary Press, based at the famous hospital in New York and the publisher of Paul Harding's Pulitzer Prize-winning Tinkers."